1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus which is controlled on the basis of a control program, control data, etc. stored in a memory of a controller for controlling the driving of the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, and a control method for the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, and particularly to a refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus in which the control program, the driving control data and other data stored in the memory can be easily rewritten or these data can be easily written into the memory, and a control method for the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus containing a refrigerating air conditioner for heating/cooling large-size structures such as buildings, etc. and a refrigerating machine for a business show case, a low-temperature warehouse or the like, the refrigerating cycle is carried out as follows. That is, refrigerant is hermetically filled in a hermetically-sealed refrigerant circuit in which a compressor, a condenser, an expansion, an evaporator, etc. (hereinafter collectively referred to as xe2x80x9cunitxe2x80x9d) are hermetically connected to one another through pipes, and the refrigerant is circulated in the refrigerant circuit while heat transfer is conducted between the refrigerant and the air, water or the like under the outdoor environment in an outdoor heat exchanger to thereby induce phase variation of the refrigerant, whereby freezing/refrigerating or cooling/heating operation can be performed in an indoor heat exchanger of an indoor unit at the using side.
Further, the control of the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus is carried out as follows. For example, a rewritable memory is installed in each unit of the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, such as an outdoor unit, an indoor unit, a remote controller, a central controller, etc., and a control program, control parameters and control data (these data will be hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9ccontrol data, etc.xe2x80x9d) are stored in the memory so that the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus is controlled on the basis of the control data, etc.
In general, a flash memory, EEPROM or the like is used as the rewritable memory, and the control program for controlling each unit is stored in the flash memory while the various control parameters and the control data are stored in EEPROM.
The writing/rewriting of the control data, etc. into such a memory is carried out by using a data writing device (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cdata writerxe2x80x9d). In the conventional refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, a data writer is prepared in one-to-one correspondence to each unit of the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus (i.e., a data writer is allocated to each of the indoor unit, the outdoor unit, etc.), and electrical control communication data for the control data, etc. are transmitted to a memory installed in a controller equipped to each unit (outdoor unit, indoor unit, etc.) from each data writer which is exclusively connected to the corresponding unit to write/rewrite the control data, etc. into the memory.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. Hei-5-248684 discloses one of these refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatuses. According to this publication, a central controller serially transmits control communication data to the respective memories of plural indoor units, the control communication data containing control target unit type data for discriminating whether the target to be controlled is directed to an individual unit (i.e., individual control mode) or a group of units (i.e., group control mod), target address data for indicating a data transmission target to which the control data, etc. should be transmitted, and the control data, etc. Each indoor unit has a rewritable memory for storing a group number set by a remote controller, an identifier for comparing the self indoor unit number (the indoor unit number of the indoor unit concerned which has been recorded in the identifier) with the indoor unit number indicated by the target address data when the control target unit type data indicates that the target to be controlled is directed to an individual unit, thereby judging whether the control communication data transmitted form the center controller is addressed to the indoor unit concerned itself, or comparing the self group number of the indoor unit concerned (which has been stored in the memory of the indoor unit concerned) with the group number indicated by the target address data when the control target unit type data indicates that the target to be controlled is directed to a unit group, thereby judging whether the control communication data transmitted from the center controller is addressed the indoor unit (group unit) concerned itself, and a driving controller for controlling the driving of the indoor unit concerned according to the control data, etc. transmitted from the central controller when it is judged that the control communication data transmitted from the central controller is addressed to the indoor unit concerned itself.
According to the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus as described above, when the central controller executes the group control mode, it takes little time until all of the grouped indoors are actuated, and the rearrangement/alteration of the group can be easily performed. In addition, if the remote controller is designed so that a group number set by a group number setting portion is displayed by a group number display portion, the group number can be easily checked by the user.
In the conventional refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus in which the control data, etc. are stored in the memory of each unit and the driving of each unit is controlled on the basis of the control data, etc., each data writer is provided in one-to-one correspondence to each unit as described above. However, when wrong control communication data transmitted from a data writer are written/rewritten into some unit, the unit concerned malfunctions or the control of the unit is disturbed. In general, when any unit is connected to a data writer, the control data, etc. transmitted from the data writer are freely written/rewritten into the unit irrespective of the matching between the unit concerned and the control data, etc. For example, if the data writer is erroneously connected to the memory of the controller of some indoor unit although data which should be written/rewritten at this time are originally addressed to the memory of the controller of an outdoor unit, the control data, etc. for the outdoor unit are erroneously written/rewritten in the memory of the indoor unit, that is, undesired control data, etc. are written/rewritten into an unexpected memory.
When the control data, etc. are written/rewritten into an improper unit as described above, not only the unit malfunctions because the construction of constituent elements (hardware) of the unit is different, but also it is generally difficult to find the error and it takes much time to restore the data error. Therefore, much labor is imposed in order to carry out the restoring work.
The present invention has been implemented in view of the foregoing problems of the conventional refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, and has an object to provide a refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus which can suppress data writing/rewriting error of a data writer into the memories of operating units constituting the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, such as an outdoor unit, an indoor unit, etc., and control units such as a remote controller, a center controller (control board), etc. to thereby performing data writing/rewriting more accurately and surely, and a control method for the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus including operating/controlling units containing outdoor units for performing heat transfer from/to an outside environment, indoor units connected to the outdoor units through refrigerant pipes, and control devices for controlling the driving of the outdoor units and the indoor units, each operating/controlling unit being equipped with a controller which controls the driving of the unit and has a rewritable memory for storing a control program, control parameter data, control data, etc., and the controllers being connected to one another through communication lines so as to carry out mutual data communications with one another, is characterized by including at least one data writer which is connected to at least one of the operating/controlling units to transmit control communication data to the controllers of the operating/controlling units when the content of the memory of the controller of at least one of the operating/controlling units is required to be written/rewritten, wherein the control communication data contains identification information with which each controller of the operating/controlling units judges whether the control communication data received by the controller is addressed to the controller itself, and if the control communication data is judged to be addressed to the controller, the controller writes/rewrites the control data, etc. of the memory thereof.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the above refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, the data writer is connected to any one of the operating/controlling units and the communication lines to transmit the control communication data from the one of the operating/controlling units and the communication lines to the controller of at least desired one of the operating/controlling units in order to write/rewrite the control data, etc. of the control communication data into the memory of the controller concerned.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the above refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data writer is mounted in any one of the operating/controlling units to transmit the control communication data from the one of the operating/controlling units to the controller of at least desired one of the operating/controlling units in order to write/rewrite the control data, etc. of the control communication data into the memory of the controller concerned.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the above refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, the control communication data contains target unit type data representing a unit group of same type operating/controlling units having the same function which should be written/rewritten with new control data, etc. and a target unit ID representing an individual target unit to which the writing/rewriting of the control data, etc. is required.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the above the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, the controller of each operating/controlling unit has an identifier for comparing the target unit ID of the control communication data transmitted from the data writer with a unit ID which is inherently allocated to the operating/controlling unit, thereby judging whether the control communication data transmitted from the data writer are addressed to the operating/controlling unit, and the controller writes/rewrites the content of the memory of the controller if it is judged that the control communication data transmitted from the data writer are addressed to the operating/controlling unit concerned.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, each of the controllers has an indicator for indicating xe2x80x9cID inconsistencyxe2x80x9d representing that the data writing/rewriting is not carried out if the target unit ID of the control communication data transmitted from the data writer is not coincident with the unit ID allocated to the operating/controlling unit of the controller concerned or indicating xe2x80x9ccompletion of data writing/rewritingxe2x80x9d if the target unit ID of the control communication data transmitted from the data write is coincident with the unit ID allocated to the operating/controlling unit of the controller concerned.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the above refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, at least one of the operating/controlling units and the data writer has a display unit, and the indicator indicates xe2x80x9cID inconsistencyxe2x80x9d to the display unit to display xe2x80x9cID inconsistencyxe2x80x9d.
According to an eight aspect of the present invention, in the above refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, the control devices contain a central controller for collectively controlling the driving of the outdoor units and the indoor units.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the above refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus, the control devices contain remote controllers for individually controlling the driving of the outdoor units and the indoor units.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, a method for controlling a refrigerating/air-conditioning apparatus which includes operating/controlling units containing outdoor units for performing heat transfer from/to an outside environment, indoor units connected to the outdoor units through refrigerant pipes, and control devices for controlling the driving of the outdoor units and the indoor units, each operating/controlling unit being equipped with a controller which controls the driving of the unit and has a rewritable memory for storing a control program, control parameter data, control data, etc., the operating/controlling units being respectively provided with ID codes which are set to be identical to one another when the operating/controlling units have the same function, but different from one another when the operating/controlling units have different functions, and the controllers of the operating/controlling units being connected to one another through communication lines so as to carry out mutual data communications with one another, is characterized by comprising the steps of: transmitting control communication data instructing writing/rewriting of the control data, etc. of the memory of at least one of the operating/controlling units to each of the operating/controlling units, the control communication data containing a target unit ID code for specifying an operating/controlling unit which is required to be subjected to the data writing/rewriting; comparing the target unit ID code with the ID code which is inherently allocated to each operating/controlling unit receiving the control communication data to judge whether the control communication data containing the target unit ID code is addressed to the operating/controlling unit concerned; and indicating xe2x80x9ccompletion of writing/rewriting of the control data, etc.xe2x80x9d if the target unit ID code is coincident with the ID code, or indicating xe2x80x9cID inconsistencyxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cno writing/rewriting of the control data, etc.xe2x80x9d if the target unit ID code is not coincident with the ID code.